


Tiny Terror(ist)

by hallowed-vessels (hasbeenhotel)



Category: Epithet Erased (Cartoon)
Genre: & is for friendship please dont think this is a ship fic its not, Gen, if you want you can just skip to the first linebreak, its found family time, kiddo!Zora AU by textposts-erased on tumblr, some implied harm at the very beginning, you wont miss much
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-25 07:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22428295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hasbeenhotel/pseuds/hallowed-vessels
Summary: Zora turns herself into a kid, and it’s everyone else’s problem. But mostly Ramsey and Percy’s problem.
Relationships: Ramsey Murdoch & Percival “Percy” King & Zora Salazar
Comments: 36
Kudos: 151





	1. Chapter 1

There was some sort of commotion outside. Someone had come on over the intercom and demanded everyone go outside to handle the problem. She wasn’t expecting to have an opportunity so soon, but even drugged up and beaten, Zora was _not_ going to let this opportunity slip past her.

She clutched tightly to the scrap of newspaper, and took a deep breath. She’d never turned time back on herself. Or tried to do something so specific yet vague. She had to be small enough to get through the window bars and her shackles, but still old enough to figure out that she needed to escape, and how to.

Zora gave one last thought to the few, close friends she had made over the years- the people she’s come to consider as family, -knowing that she likely wouldn’t remember them. All her memories would get buried, so deep down they might never come back.

It was a clean slate, and she wouldn’t have any scars or pain from the torture she’d been through in the past who knows how long. Theoretically.

And theoretically, Bliss Ocean would find her. They’d find her, remind her of her epithet, and everything could be fixed again. Until then, she’d find a place where she knew she’d be kept safe.

Her resolve set, she summoned a dial, and started to spin it backwards, trying to cling to the thought of what she needed to do as her body and mind regressed.

And just like that, she was back in the body of a child. Her wrists slipped out of the cuffs easily. She stood up with an air of uncertainty, her old clothes far too large. Her poncho felt more like a dress, long enough to drag on the ground.

She stared, puzzled, at the scrap of newspaper, before shoving it in the poncho’s pocket and using the chains to climb up to the window. She squeezed through the bars.

The rocky ground hurt her bare feet, and she was hesitant to go anywhere.

Until the loud blasts of firearms started up nearby, scaring her. She bolted to the woods, ignoring the pain that came from running across the sticks and crunchy leaves.

Once she had gotten far enough away, she slumped against a tree, gasping for air. She pulled out the scrap of paper again, reading it more thoroughly as she rested. Under a picture of a rat-faced man, the headline read in big, bold letters:

“ **REFORMED CON ARTIST NOW A SWEET JAZZ CITY POLICE OFFICER.** ”

* * *

The radio buzzed to life. “Any units close to the intersection between 82nd and Walker?”

Percy reached over and clicked the radio. “Ramsey and I are.” Ramsey stopped tapping at his phone game to pay attention to what was going to be said.

“The little general store down there called to report a kid trying to steal. Should be a quick job, just go pick them up and bring ‘em down to the station. We’ll call their parents and take it from there.”

“Understood.” Percy nodded, shutting the radio off.

Ramsey hovered a hand over the car’s lights. “Can I turn them on?”

“This isn’t a situation that requires them.” She said.

“Please?”

The tiniest hint of a smile cracked on her face. “Alright. But just the lights.”

He gave a quiet cheer and turned them on. He knew Percy wasn’t as cold as she acted. There was always a little bit of humor to be found in even simple things like turning on the siren lights.

Only a few minutes later, they were at the store. Percy led the way, a hand on her sword, just in case. Ramsey tailed after her, his stance much more relaxed. It was just a kid, there wouldn’t be any need for violence.

“Took ya long enough!” Grunted a large, sweaty man who he guessed was the store’s owner. “Help me catch this slippery brat!”

“You’re having trouble catching a kid?” Ramsey asked in bewilderment.

Percy spoke over him. “Alright. We’ll split up and corner them. I’ll cover this side, Ramsey- you get the right side. Sir, please stay here and make sure the child doesn’t slip out.”

He did as he was told, glancing around at the absolute mess the aisles had become. Cheap snacks and drinks had been knocked out of their places, some packages broken with their contents covering the ground.

He stepped around the mess and headed towards the back of the store, glancing around to find the tiny crook.

A few aisles down, crouched close to the floor and almost completely obscured by a tangled mass of filthy brown hair, was the child. Ramsey crept up behind the child and grabbed her shoulder.

Her head snapped around to face him, and he only had a second to register the signature yellow triangles above the left eye and below the right. Then the kid chucked a powdered donut at his face and bolted.

“GAH, MY EYE!” He shouted. He quickly rubbed the sugar out of his good eye, clearing his vision enough to make sure he was aiming right, and turned the girl’s poncho into gold. As expected, she fell and rolled around a little bit, trying to get back up.

“Are you alright?” Percy asked as she turned the corner to reach them at the back of the aisle.

Ramsey nodded as he wiped the rest of the powdery treat off of his face as well as he could. “Something like that. Glad to know you care that I got attacked by a toddler.” He said with a laugh.

She folded her arms and gave him a slight frown. “Pardon me for prioritizing the health of my partner over the objective.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Perc.” Ramsey chuckled. “She’s not going anywhere.” He gestured to the kid, who was struggling to get up even with the weight of her now-metal poncho.

She took a second to examine the kid, then grabbed his arm. “Ramsey, is that-?”

He dropped his joking demeanor. “Let’s not talk about that here.”

“You’re right.” Percy agreed. She walked over to the little girl and crouched down. “You shouldn’t steal.” She lectured.

The girl stopped wiggling around, stared at Percy, and stuck out her tongue. Ramsey sighed. “Alright, you, let’s get you out of here.” He reverted her poncho and tried to pick her up. She snapped at him like a rabid dog, barely missing his fingers. “Yikes. No wonder you gave this shop owner a run for his money.”

He grabbed her again and picked her up, getting repeatedly kicked in the shin for his troubles. Percy exchanged a few words of apology with the store owner while Ramsey wrestled the little girl into the back of the police car and locked her in.

“It’s definitely Zora. I don’t know why she’s a kid, but it’s her, no doubt about it.” He said as soon as Percy left the shop.

She nodded firmly in agreement. “It does seem quite certain. The question now is what to do with her.”

Ramsey scoffed. “We take her back to the station, she gets put away for life, Bliss Ocean is down one of their big four.” Percy glared at him. He stared at her in horror. “Percy, no. You can’t seriously want to defend her?! She’s _absolutely insane_ , she tried to kill us both!”

“This isn’t the Zora who did that. This is a child!” She jabbed a finger at the back window of the car, where the little Zora was boredly swinging her legs back and forth. “I’m not going to let a child get put away because of things that her future self did. The Zora we encountered was a monster, but this Zora is still innocent.”

“We literally just arrested her for robbery.” Ramsey deadpanned. Percy crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. She wasn’t going to back down any time soon. He buried his face in his hands and sighed. “So what are we gonna do with Little Miss Terror.”

“Hmm. We can’t take her back, but we’ll need to find someone who can watch her.”

He snorted. “No one in their right mind would ever agree to that.”

Percy nodded. “And if we can’t get anyone else to do it...” She trailed off and looked at him.

“No. No, no, no!” He pointed at her, furiously shaking his finger. “We are NOT letting a baby terrorist into our house!”

She grinned, a smug expression settling into place. “It’s a good thing that it’s my house, then. You just pay rent.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Panic attack TW for this chapter!

Zora did not trust this place. She knew it was Ramsey she had been looking for, even though she couldn’t remember _why_ she was looking for him, but him and Percy both watched her too closely and with too much suspicion for her to feel safe like Percy claimed she would be.

She decided that exchanging names with them on the car ride to the house was more than enough conversation, and decided to stay quiet as Percy toured her through the house. The idea of living inside was weird, and she didn’t know if she liked it. Yeah, it was warm here, there was food and soft places to lay down, but outdoors meant plenty of places to run if something went wrong.

“Once we get stuff set up for you, this will be your room.” Percy said as she swung the door in front of them open to reveal a rather dusty room with several stacks of old cardboard boxes in it, along with scattered picture frames and other decorations. “We’ll get it cleaned up soon.” She almost sounded embarrassed.

Zora nearly said that she didn’t mind the dust and mess before she remembered that she was being silent right now. So she just nodded a little bit.

“Though, I’d assume you’re probably quite used to living in dirty places.” Percy commented as she picked a stray twig out of the little girl’s hair.

Zora pulled away in slight annoyance, but she let the woman drag her along into a bathroom nearby. The tile was chilly on her bare feet, so she shifted slightly from side to side and looked around the room as Percy decided what to do.

“You’re probably not used to bathrooms, so I’ll give you time to adjust before we work on a proper shower for you...” Percy mused. “Maybe I can just wash your hair in the sink for now?”

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. She was perfectly fine with messy hair, thank you very much!

Percy folded her arms and frowned. “Your hair is a mess, it’ll be nice to have it clean.” She tried to convince her.

Zora shook her head again, wrapping her arms around herself under her poncho. She stepped back against the wall and stared at the ground.

Percy crouched down and pulled a leaf out of Zora’s hair. It crunched and fell apart in her hand. “It can’t be nice to have all of this in there, can I please wash your hair to get it all out?”

She wasn’t going to give up, evidently. So Zora reluctantly nodded and stepped away from the wall. Percy picked her up and set her on the counter. The officer tried to remove her poncho, but Zora clung to it, giving the woman a wide-eyed look of terror.

“It’ll just be for a few minutes, so that it doesn’t get dirty. I’ll put it right here.” Percy coaxed. She managed to wrestle the cloth away from Zora, and folded it neatly before putting it on the other side of the counter. Zora squirmed under Percy’s firm stare. “We’ll need to get you better clothes.” She stated.

Zora tugged slightly at the baggy, dirty clothes. Considering that she’d gotten them out of a dumpster, they were pretty nice. Maybe? She didn’t exactly have standards to compare it to. She wouldn’t have to think about it if she had her poncho...

Percy turned the sink’s handle just a little, leaving the water at a trickle as she distractedly dug in a drawer for a brush. Hearing the water, seeing the little droplets- it triggered something. Not really a memory, more of an impression.

Having water on her face, breathing air but **drowning-**

She bolted.

She wanted to get out of this house, out of this city, but she was somewhere unfamiliar and even her fight-or-flight instincts knew she wouldn’t stand a chance out there.

So instead she crammed herself under the couch, burying her face in the carpet and trying hopelessly to calm her breathing. She was crying now, which didn’t help and only drove her panic to higher levels as the carpet got soaked.

It felt like her lungs were exploding, and her heart was trying to rip its way out of her chest.

Then the safe pressure of the couch above her disappeared. Arms wrapped around her and pulled her off of the ground. “Zora? Hey, hey... Breathe. Deep breath. Is there anything that you need?”

“P-” Zora choked on the word and her own breath. “Poncho.” She wanted it back so badly. She needed it, she needed to feel safe. She heard Percy and Ramsey talking, footsteps leaving and coming back, but nothing really registered until she felt stiff cloth pressed against her hands.

She buried her face in it and tried to take some deeper breaths. It smelled like woodsmoke, which did bring some relief and a sense of safety. “You doing better now, kiddo?” Rasmey adjusted his grip on her to ruffle her hair a little.

She nodded a little, keeping the poncho pressed against her face. “Sorry...” she mumbled. “Ah dunno know wha’ happened...”

“It’s quite alright.” Percy reassured her. “We can wait on washing your hair, if I can brush it. Would that be okay?”

She nodded again. Really, she’d like to leave her hair as-is, but she doubted Percy would leave her alone until something was done about it. “Can yew keep holding me?” Zora quietly begged Ramsey as Percy left to grab a hairbrush.

“Oh, yeah, sure. Do you wanna put your poncho back on first?”

She shifted to get the cloth draped over her shoulders, accidentally elbowing Ramsey in the gut. “‘orry,” She mumbled. Her poncho was warm, and the sense of familiarity helped to chase away the last vestige of her panic attack.

Percy returned with a brush, and sat down next to them. She started trying to work out whatever dead plant matter she could easily find. Zora tensed up when Percy took the hairbrush and began brushing out the tangles. But Percy was trying to be as gentle as she could, so Zora tried to resist the urge to whirl around and punch her every time there was a yank on her hair.

The three sat there for a while in complete silence, aside from the occasional squeak from Zora when a particularly tough knot required Percy to pull harder on the brush. About an hour later, there was a rather large pile on the floor of leaves, twigs, the occasional matted clump of hair that couldn’t be brushed out on the ground. Zora’s hair was neater, albeit a little poofier and staticky than usual from all the brushing.

As the hours had flown by, Zora had fallen fast asleep in Ramsey’s arms. While Percy cleaned up, Ramsey set the little girl down on the couch and grabbed a blanket to tuck her in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got around to updating this! Sorry that it took so long but here’s chapter 2! Also huge huge thanks to mistxmood for helping me figure out how to write Zora’s accent.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zora can't be left home alone, so she ends up with an impromptu babysitter or two.

Zora didn’t want Percy and Ramsey to leave. The previous night had been the safest she’d felt in the past year or two, even with the unexplainable panic attack. But they explained to her that they couldn’t just both start taking days off from work, it would be too suspicious.

So, she begrudgingly allowed herself to be dragged out of the house to be babysat. They took her to a building that only had the words “Soup Kitchen” above the door.

She glanced around curiously as Ramsey took her inside. It was a very plain space, with lots of tables and chairs and a serving bar at the back. A guy with pink hair was serving soup to some people.

Ramsey took her to stand over by the end of the bar. The guy with pink hair walked over to greet them. He reeled a little when he saw her, then covered it up with a confused smile. “Tiny cowboy?”

She liked the sound of that. Zora tugged on Ramsey’s hand and beamed up at him. Ramsey ruffled her hair in return. “Yup. Would you be able to watch her for a bit? Perc and I can’t exactly skip work, and we don’t want to leave her at home all on her own.” He turned to Zora. “You’d be fine with staying here with Giovanni for the day, right?”

She really didn’t want to, but she nodded anyway. Giovanni seemed just as uncertain about the arrangement as she was. “I guess I can?”

Ramsey sighed in relief. “Thanks a ton. Do **not** take her to go do “crime things.” And Zora, behave yourself, alright? Giovanni has a phone and my number if you need something.”

She nodded again. “Yer gonna come back, right?” She asked softly, feeling a sudden burst of anxiety.

“Of course, kiddo. Percy and I will be back before you know it.” Zora slowly released her grip and allowed him to leave.

“So, seems like it’s just gonna be you and me for a bit, huh?” Giovanni said, plopping down onto the floor.

“Are yew a criminal?” She asked, widening her eyes. “Is tha’ why yew do crime things?”

He burst out laughing. “Something like that.”

“Are yew gonna go do crime things today?”

He shrugged. “That was the plan. Gonna have to work something else out, though, since your dad wants me to watch you.”

She tilted her head and gave him a weird look. “He’s not mah pa.” She stated.

Giovanni shrugged. “If you say so.”

“Ah **do** say so. And ah can watch mahself, if yew want me to.” Zora quickly added, anxiously fidgeting with her hands underneath her poncho. She was used to being all by herself, why did the idea of doing it again for a few hours suddenly stress her out so much?

Giovanni shook his head. “Nah, I can’t do that. Maybe I can take you to hang out with my friend Molly! She’s really nice, and runs a toy store. There will be plenty to keep you entertained. And she knows Percy, so you’ll still be able to call someone if you need to.”

Meeting one new person was already stressful. Stores were crowded. She ran her fingers through her hair- momentarily distracted by how weird it was that there were no tangles, -and thought about it. She could handle it, and if she did, everything could go smoothly and she wouldn’t be a burden to anyone. “...’Kay. Ah can meet Molly.”

“Cool.” He held out a fist, and for a brief, terrifying moment, she thought he was going to hit her. She stood there, completely frozen. Giovanni frowned. “Do you not know what a fistbump is?”

Zora hesitantly shook her head.

“Well, I’ll teach you, then. It’s like a high-five, but for cool people. You make a fist, and then bump it into someone else’s fist. And then you can add an explosion, because explosions are _extra_ cool. Here, try it out.” She obliged, feeling very silly doing it. Giovanni made overly dramatic explosion noises and fell over onto his back. “That was a very powerful fistbump.”

She snorted. “Tha’s so stupid.”

“But it’s fun, isn’t it?” He nodded sagely. He got up and offered a hand to her, which she readily took, feeling much more at ease around him. “Let’s take you to go meet Molly.”

* * *

Giovanni introduced Molly to her as “Beartrap” and introduced her to Molly as “Tiny Cowboy”, which made no sense, even if she did like being called that, so Zora reintroduced herself properly. Molly did the same, even though Zora was already able to guess who she was.

Molly didn’t have that same sort of wariness around Zora that Percy, Ramsey, and Giovanni all had. It was a welcome change, but it also made her anxious. She must have messed up somehow, to make everyone so wary around her, right? What if she messed up again? She’d just have to be careful, walk on eggshells if she had to.

She let Molly show her around the little store after Giovanni left with a loud declaration that he was going to go do “crime things,” and that they “had better not think up any super cool schemes” without him.

She forced interest in all of the toys that Molly showed her, even though the only one she genuinely liked was the little plush horse.

She avoided actually playing with any of them. Just nodded and kept her hands to herself. Molly seemed to catch on that Zora didn’t feel the most comfortable, and led her to a little room in the back of the store. She grabbed some books that were lying around and told Zora she was free to read them, then left to go handle customers.

Which meant Zora was all alone, for the first time in twenty-four hours. It was kind of nice to take a second away from people.

It was _really_ quiet though. Just the sound of her breathing and the obnoxiously loud clock ticking in the background.

For some reason, it was unnerving. After what felt like an eternity of just listening to it tick, she covered her ears. That didn’t help. She pressed her hands harder to her head.

She didn’t know if she could actually still hear it, or if she was imagining it. It seemed like it was getting louder and louder, and each harmless little noise made her skin crawl. Something about it felt wrong and bad, but she had no clue what it was.

Zora felt like some sort of memory was crawling around inside her head, its presence certain but its identity unknown. She wanted to remember, but she also didn’t. Didn’t want to know why she felt so much fury and frustration from the sound of a _clock ticking_ -

And then everything went quiet.

The overwhelming emotion, the obnoxious noise, completely gone. She looked up to see Molly standing next to her, some sort of glowing, green bubble around them.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

Zora tried to recollect herself. “Yeah. Ah just- ah got spooked by the clock noise. Ah think? The ticking jus’...” She trailed off and shuddered.

Molly nodded. “I get that. Maybe you have misophonia? I have it, it makes it impossible to stand certain sounds and stuff.”

That didn’t sound right, but maybe she should look into it? Somehow. Maybe Percy could help. She’d worry about that later. “How’d ya make it shush?”

“Oh, my epithet is Dumb. I can make things quiet.” Molly explained. “It’s not the greatest epithet out there, but I get a lot of use out of it.”

“Ah think it’s a good power.” Zora blurted out. “Ya can’t hurt nobody, yew can’t make yerself better than others, tha’s how it oughta be.”

“I- I guess?” She seemed completely lost on where the statement had come from. “Um, are you Inscribed, Zora?”

Zora shook her head. “Ah don’t think so.”

“Maybe you are.” Molly shrugged. “Lots of people don’t know if they are or aren’t for a really long time. I got lucky, since mine is a really common word. What word would you want?”

She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Ah don’t want no epithet.” For whatever reason, the thought of epithets, the thought of being Inscribed, made her stomach twist into knots and her blood boil. So she changed the subject, a little more harshly than she meant to. “When is Percy gonna pick me up?”

Molly gave her a look of disbelief. “Um, I can call her? You can just, uh, stay here for a bit?”

Zora slumped back in her chair as Molly left the room again. She’d done it again, hadn’t she? She’d messed up, and now Molly wouldn’t trust her either.

She ran her fingers through her hair- the smooth texture was still so weird, -and tried to ignore the thought. All she ended up doing was letting her mind replay the conversation, trying to figure out what she’d done wrong.

Was it that she didn’t want an epithet? Was that what was wrong with her? She didn’t want a superpower, that would seem strange to most people... but she had a perfectly good reason! It was because-

Because-

Why _didn’t_ she?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! An update! I'm back in the swing of things (mostly) so hopefully updates will be a liiiittle more consistent. No promises! Hope ya'll enjoyed.


	4. Chapter 4

The first thing on Percy’s agenda- after work, of course, -was to take Zora shopping. She would like to be sure to get furniture that Zora would like, and there was no better way than to let the little girl pick it out herself.

Progress was, however, going quite slowly. Percy glanced over her shoulder, passively watching as Zora and Ramsey had a pillow fight. It was like she was watching _two_ children... She sighed and shook her head. “Come along, you rascals. There will be no fighting in this establishment!”

“Yes, ma’am.” Ramsey laughed as he tossed his and Zora’s pillows back to the bed on display that they had taken them from.

Zora scrunched up her nose. “But this is so borin’!” She whined. “Cain’t we go home soon?”

“The sooner we finish picking out furniture for you, the sooner we can get home. So come along and start looking for things that you like.” Percy gestured around. “Do any of these beds look nice?”

“They’re beds. They all look tha same. How different could they be?”

Percy stopped walking. “Don’t be silly, there are many differences between bed types. There are, at the very least, eleven different mattress sizes, many options for thickness and firmness! Bed frames themselves come in different types as well, each one suited to a certain type of decor. When choosing a frame, you must consider the height, length, what mattress size it will fit, color, materia-“

“Just find one that’s comfortable.” Ramsey cut Percy off. “One that’s soft and maybe a bit bouncy-“

Percy gasped in horror. “ _No!_ Bouncing on a bed is a health and safety hazard!”

“How bad can it be? It’s just some fun.”

“Falling off of beds and other related injuries account for a surprisingly large amount of harm to children, many of which can include fractured bones and even concussions!”

“Perce, she’s not made of glass. She’s been surviving on the streets for who knows how long, and she’s fine.”

“Hmm.” Percy considered his point. “That reminds me, Zora, how long have you- Zora?” The little girl was gone.

Ramsey looked around and ran his hands through his hair. “It’s only day two! How have we _already_ lost her?!”

Percy’s cop side immediately took over. “There’s no way she could have gotten very far, let’s split up and search in different directions.”

She turned to split up, internally estimating how fast a little girl like Zora would be able to find her way through and out of the store, but as soon as she took one step, the girl in question popped out from underneath one of the beds with a yell. Startled, Percy grabbed her sword’s handle, pausing just short of unsheathing the blade. She put her hand over her chest and exhaled.

“You startled me!”

Zora brought her hands to her mouth and giggled. “That’s tha point.”

“Way to give us heart attacks, kiddo.” Ramsey grumbled, moving back to Percy’s side, a smile on his face despite the mild annoyance in his voice. “Don’t go running off like that.” He picked her up to prevent her from running off again. She squirmed and tried to pry herself out of his grip.

Percy removed her hand from her sword, taking a breath to fully calm herself. She put on a smile. “Do you like this one, then?” She gestured to the bed that Zora had been hiding under.

She twisted around to look at it, and shrugged. “’s a bed.”

“That’s probably the best we’re gonna get. So one, uh,” He looked at the tag with the information about the bed. “I’m not going to try to pronounce that.”

With the fact that they’d been wandering through this section of the store for the past two hours, Percy was inclined to give in. She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of the info card. “Alright. We’ll order it to be delivered when we get home.”

Zora perked up. “We’re finally leaving?” She started trying to escape Ramsey’s arms again. “Put me down, ah’ll race ya!”

He readjusted his grip on her, clearly struggling to hold her. “Nope, I don’t want you to run off and get lost-” A well-placed elbow to the stomach set the little girl free, and she darted off into the maze of strangely-named furniture. “ _Ow._ ”

“Are you alright?” Percy hovered her hand out, ready to summon a mushroom hut if it was needed.

Ramsey held his side. “Yup, I’m fine. We should probably go catch her before someone recognizes her.” Percy nodded firmly, grabbed him by the wrist, and charged off after Zora.

They found her about ten minutes later, standing outside the store, staring out into the parking lot with a dazed expression. “You appear to have beaten us outside.” Percy acknowledged. “You seem quite distracted, has something of note happened?”

“Um...” Zora shook her head, and the dazed look disappeared. “Ah don’t... nah, nothing’s happened. Ah feel like somethin’ did, but ah cain’t remember...”

“It must not have been important, then.” Percy reasoned. “Let’s head back to the car so we can go home.” She took Zora’s hand and led the way back to the police car sitting in the mostly-empty lot. Her mind wandered as they left. It was nearly 9:30 at night, which was far later than she’d rather have someone as young as Zora staying up. She decided to put her to bed as soon as they got home, except they didn’t have a bed for her yet. Percy would feel bad about making her sleep on the couch again... Her bed was big enough to share it with Zora for a couple nights, she supposed.

“Is it normal ta never remember... **anythin** ’?” Zora asked, breaking the silence.

“Everyone forgets things, kiddo, don’t worry about it.” Ramsey replied. “Perce and I forget things that just happened all the time.” Percy hummed in agreement.

“But ah cain’t remember anything.” Zora sounded frustrated. “Ah don’t know where ah’m from, or who my real family is. The first thing ah can remember is running and then wakin’ up in a forest.”

Percy took her eyes off the road for a split second to exchange a worried glance with Ramsey. “Well, there’s no rush to remember all that.” He said in an attempt to be reassuring. “Sometimes forgetting is good. Maybe your memories were of bad things, so you forgot them.”

“Or maybe there’s jus’ something wrong with me. Ah cain’t even listen to a clock tick without cryin’ like a baby.” Percy’s heart ached at the amount of frustrating and self-loathing in Zora’s voice. “That reminds me, what’s mizzo-phone-euh? Molly said ah should look into it.” She carefully sounded out the word.

Percy smiled at the mention of the Blyndeff child. “Ah, Molly! She’s a lovely young lass. Misophonia makes it quite difficult for one to stand certain noises, among other things. We could look into it.” She briefly wondered if the aversion to the sound of a clock could be related in some way to Zora’s epithet. The adult version of her that Percy had met did express some distaste for her epithet, perhaps that had carried over in a more severe form?

Zora seemed satisfied by the answer, and didn’t say anything for the rest of the drive. When they got back to the house, Percy discovered that the little girl had fallen asleep in the backseat.

She smiled, picked her up, and carried her into the house, being careful not to wake her up. She tucked her in as she’d planned, and simply sat there for a while, letting the day process in her head as she watched Zora sleep.

Maybe it would be good, if Zora’s memory never came back. She would never remember her epithet, never remember whatever had happened to make her hate epithets, she’d never go back to Bliss Ocean. Maybe it was selfish, maybe it was wrong, but Percy wanted Zora to stay like this. She was a part of Percy’s strange, unofficial family now, and she didn’t want to have to say goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *rises from the ashes* So this fic will hopefully get at least one more update within the next. I dunno. Month? Because I’m getting to work on a really fun arc where I’m at with writing this!  
> So anyway. Literally the entire time this chapter was in progress I was making never-ending “Zora in Ikea, what crimes will she commit” jokes.


	5. Chapter 5

Zora fiddled with the clunky flip phone that Percy had given her. It was for emergencies, but she doubted she would run into one where she’d need to call Percy on her own. After all, she was just going to be spending the day with Giovanni like she had yesterday. “Are yew gonna send me to Molly’s store again?”

“Nope.” He replied, popping the p. “She’s got a therapy appointment today, so she’s not at the store. You’re sticking with me, Tiny Cowboy!”

“Okay!” She chirped. “Does that mean we’re gonna do crime things?”

“Nah, your mom would kill me if I took you to go do crime things.”

Zora considered his words, trying to figure out what he meant. “Percy? She’s nawt my ma.”

Giovanni grabbed a rag and started to wipe down the counter with a chuckle. “If you say so. Either way, my boys and I went out and did crimes yesterday, so today’s an off day. We’re just having a special meeting!” He stopped and eyed her. “But not just anyone can join in on our super secret special meetings! They’re for only me and my boys.”

Her shoulders slumped. She had been looking forward to joining in and learning about whatever it was that Giovanni did. It seemed like she was going to be hanging around him a lot until Percy felt comfortable leaving her home alone, and she wanted to be in the loop. The idea of a criminal organization felt... familiar. “I can wait outside.” She offered, dejected.

“Don’t worry, I have a solution!” Giovanni set aside the rag and started digging around under the counters.

She came over and stood on the tips of her toes, trying to see over the counter. She still couldn’t see, so she crawled up on top of it. “Watcha doin’?”

“Looking for something... Aha!” Giovanni re-emerged from under the counter, a thin metal object in his hand and a smug grin on his face. “The only solution is- hey! I just cleaned those!” He shoved the pin in his pocket and picked her up, setting her back down on the ground.

Zora stuck out her tongue and grabbed for his pocket. “Ah wanna see! Hand it ovah!”

“Hey- hey! Down, Tiny Cowboy, _down!_ You’ll get to see in a second!” He scolded lightly, pushing her away. He put his hand to his chest proudly. “I’m a very kind and gracious evil overlord, so in order to let you stay during our important crime meeting, that is only for me and my boys, I will make you an honorary boy!”

“But, ah’m a girl?” She tilted her head and tugged on her scarf.

“Not that kind of boy, a minion boy!” He dug the pin out of his pocket and tossed it to her. “As an honorary minion boy, you can come to the meeting!”

Zora turned the pin over in her hands, examining the deep red and orange design. “Is this soup?”

“Yup! Designed it myself.” Giovanni bragged.

She looked at it, looked up at him, and then back down at the pin. Without a word, she popped it in her mouth. It tasted awful. Zora wrinkled her nose.

“You’re not supposed to eat it!” He shouted, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. “Spit it out!”

She was going to, but now that she was told to, she didn’t want to. “Make me!” She challenged, her words a little garbled. She squirmed out of his grip and bolted around him.

Giovanni chased after her, letting her have her fun and slip away a few times, before picking her up again and bringing her back into the kitchen. He held her over the sink and gave her a little shake. “C’mon, Tiny Cowboy, spit it out.”

Her mind went back to a few days ago, when Percy had tried to wash her hair and she’d freaked out. Panic was already starting to build up just at the thought of water. Zora spat the pin out before she accidentally swallowed it, and slammed her hands against Giovanni’s arms. “Down, **down!** ” She demanded.

He set her down and she took several deep breaths, determined not to let herself panic like that again. She was gonna be a big tough cowgirl someday, and big tough cowgirls don’t get scared by something as silly as getting wet! Water was only dangerous if you tried to breathe it. And she wasn’t about to go do that.

She tilted her head back to look up at Giovanni, who was lost in thought. “Whatcha thinkin’ ‘bout?”

“As a minion boy, even just as an honorary one, you’re gonna need a cool minion name! I was gonna call you Tiny Cowboy, but I already call you that anyway, so I need to think of something different.”

“Ah like Tiny Cowboy.”

“Yeah, but that one’s not all cool and threatening! No one’s gonna go, “Oh nooo, Tiny Cowboy is coming! I’m doomed!” or anything like that.” He pointed out, shifting in and out of a goofy, high-pitched voice.

Zora frowned. “Ah like cowboys though.” It didn’t need to be threatening, she wasn’t going to go do crime things with them.

Giovanni started to pace in a circle. “Hmm... You like cowboys, cowboys have horses and lassos and those twirly guns... AHA! I’ve got it!” He whirled around to face her and struck a pose. “Your minion name will be... REVOLVER!”

“Re-vol-ver. Re-volv-er.” She tested out the sound of it. Revolver. Revolving guns, revolve, _the way the planet revolves around the **sun** -_ Zora clapped her hands together. “Ah love it!”

“And now that that’s settled, it’s time for a wonderful MINION MEETING!” Giovanni shouted. “Once the others get here.”

As if on cue, the door swung open and two more men walked in, each wearing identical pins to the one she had been given. “Hey, Boss!” They both said, just slightly out of sync.

“Crusher! Car Crash!” Giovanni greeted warmly. “You’re just in time! We’ve got a new minion!” He held out a hand to dramatically gesture to her.

Zora shifted uncomfortably as everyone’s attention was suddenly on her. The brown haired one with glasses- she didn’t know who Giovanni had been referring to when he said “Crusher” and “Car Crash” and didn’t want to guess at who was who, -looked at her blankly for a moment, before his expression went to the same wary one that nearly everyone seemed to give her. He hid it behind a neutral expression pretty quickly, but she knew she wasn’t imagining it.

Zora gave them a tiny little wave. The other minion didn’t seem to have any reaction to her, which felt reassuring. “This is Tiny Cowboy-“

“ _Zora,_ ” She corrected. Her voice came out barely above a whisper, so she tried again. “M’name’s _Zora._ ”

Giovanni ruffled her hair. “Tiny Cowboy. Or you can call her by her new minion boy name: Revolver!”

“Hello. I’m Crusher.” So that means the one with the glasses and brown hair is Car Crash. She’d need to remember that.

“Hi.” She gave him a little nod.

Car Crash pulled Giovanni aside and whispered to him. “Boss, is this...?” He trailed off. Zora knew she wasn’t supposed to be listening, so she looked away to show that she wasn’t paying attention, despite the fact that she very much was. She wanted to know why so many people looked at her all weird. She couldn’t remember having ever met these people before the past few days!

“Nah,” Giovanni whispered back. “Just, uh, scarily similar lookalike, but also like, a kid. Don’t worry about it.”

“Same name and everything... That _is_ what the cop lady mentioned her name being, right?” Cop lady? Percy? Zora wrapped her arms around herself, trying not to let her sudden anxiety show.

“Let’s not talk about that here. For now she’s the new honorary minion. And we’re just gonna act like she’s a regular minion during the meeting. Like we did for Beartrap.” The door swung open and more people entered. “Hey! Everyone’s here! Meeting time!” Giovanni called, hustling everyone over to one of the tables.

Zora took a deep breath, put a smile on her face, and joined them. She could talk to Percy about everything later! Or not. People were nice to her, so she shouldn’t worry about the way they looked at her. Giovanni said she looked like someone, so maybe it was that person who did something wrong! No use in worrying about it.

She waved at all the new people. “Hi! Ah’m Zora! But mah minion name’s Revolver, so ya’ll can call me that!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *trips down the stairs and drops an update* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa

**Author's Note:**

> I started this au right after episode 6 came out on VRV so it’s probably not the most canon-compliant in regards to Zora’s epithet. I tried but I’m human and also I took canon out back and shot it.  
> I’ve got major anxiety about posting this but I guess it’s here now. Who knows what plot it’ll have, if it’ll have any, or how many chapters it will be! Don’t expect consistent updates please


End file.
